Just a few thoughts on my M80s...especially as I wait on the M100 to come out! I have had mine for about 2 months now maybe a little longer and they have been on my head everyday for an hour or more. They have become almost my only headphone...although the LP and LP2's have been on and off also.
I have really enjoyed these headphones quite a bit. The detail is quite good! Last night I was listening to Page and Plant Unledded and I heard something that really made me stop and admire these M80s just a little bit more. "Friends" started playing. In the beginning of the song there is a solo being played on a Ney. As I was listening, I could hear the player taking breaths between notes. I have very easily listened to this album and or the DVD well over 100 times since it came out. Possibly over 200 times. I have never heard this before....ever. Now it is possible that I have heard it and just not been paying attention enough to hear it. What's even better is that I had the volume on my walkman set to 9. Now you have to take this with a grain of salt...because I do use the EQ on my Walkman. So this adds probably 6 to 10db? Not really sure because I don't have a way to measure that. But it's still at a pretty low volume either way. That kind of detail really keeps the M80 at the top of my headphone list!
I also noticed last night that these really do block out a good deal of noise. I had them on and was using my electric shaver and it occured to me that I really didn't hear the razor at all. I mean you could hear it, but it in no way impeded on my music. That was with the razor right at the top of my jawbone, so it was within an inch of the headphone.
And a couple of weeks ago I made a rather unfair comparison of the M80 to the LP2. I have not compared the M80 to my LPs. My wife stole the LP shortly after I got the purple shields. And I have to say, I didn't mind her stealing them. She's quite sexy with the LP's and purple shields on! I digress. I can definitely say that I like the LP2 over the LP. When I first got the LP it had a hollow-like sound to them. That did calm down a bit after some road time, but it was always there just a little. It was like being in an old WWII tin storage bunker! The sound just bounced all around. The LP2 has better mids. Perhaps tuned a little bit more for mids. No where near the M80, but it's pretty good. But strangely, Country sounds really good on the LP2. Maybe it's the quality of the mixing? Not sure. Country tends to have some pretty slamming bass lines and the vocals are very much in the forefront. But anyway back to the M80 and LP2 quick comparison. I was actually listening to the LP2 at the time and Boston's "Peace of Mind' started playing. I really love this song and I really love the heavy bass lines in it. But what I noticed was that the LP2 just could not keep up with the speed of the bass line. The bass on the LP2 I think is really great, but I don't think it's designed to separate a bass line like that of Peace of Mind. So that got me wondering how the M80 would compare.
Hands down the M80 was easily up to that challenge. If you're a bass player (i'm not, but am a guitar and drum player for hobby) you would easily be able to pick out the notes of the bass line. They did not bleed over at all on the M80. They did tend to blend together on the LP2.
All the while I am able to pick out the detail at a low volume. That's really important to me. I spent all of my teens and 20s abusing my hearing. I am very fortunate that my hearing is still very good. But I don't want to listen to music at loud volumes to hear great detail anymore. I really think that's what got my started on blasting my music to start with. It was easier to hear what Eddie Van Halen was doing if I had the volume on my cassette player at full blast!! Sure glad we have moved on from the Walkman cassette player to my Walkman MP3 player! hahahahaha.
Anyway. Not posting a full review here, but did want to share a couple of thoughts on how great I find the M80 to be. As with all headphones, they will not be for every set of ears out there, but for me personally they are one of the best on my wall. If I didn't own the Edition 8 they might actually be my favorite. But out of the 30 or so I have hanging on my wall of fame...they easily rank in my top 3.
I am looking forward to getting my hands on the M100 when they come out. But that's a different thread.